ScreenBroidery merchandising firm making name for itself with big move to Noblesville

A company accustomed to putting its clients’ names in the foreground is making a larger mark for its own brand as it grows.

Tom Rector, CEO of ScreenBroidery, launched his merchandise agency in 2008 from the comfort of his couch. The company has since attracted brands and events such as Jim Beam, Clif Bar and the OneAmerica 500 Festival with its personalized, on-demand coffee mugs, hats, jackets, t-shirts, power banks and more.

In July, ScreenBroidery moved from a leased 2,500-square-foot space in Castleton to a 15,000-square-foot headquarters and warehouse that it bought and renovated for nearly $1.7 million at 15255 Endeavor Drive in Noblesville.

“As we’ve grown and gotten bigger, we’ve just needed more and more space,” Rector said. “We’re planning to almost triple our workforce in the next five years. Our biggest limitation right now is time and manpower, so we’re going to fix that.”

Rector continued hiring even as the company moved, growing ScreenBroidery from nine to 15 full- and part-time employees. He’s hoping to reach 34 employees by 2022. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. is finalizing a deal with ScreenBroidery that would provide it with $168,000 in conditional tax credits if it can meet its hiring goals.

Judging by last year’s 60% revenue growth, Rector said he’s confident the company will surpass that goal by the end of 2021. Rector said he’ll be hiring another sales representative next week, and after the 500 Festival mini-marathon, ScreenBroidery will hire another sales representative and a project manager.

Rector said sales representatives can make up to $150,000 a year, depending on their capacity. Graphic designers and project managers may make an annual salary of $45,000, and accounting personnel may make as much as $55,000 a year.

Full-time fulfillment positions may be hourly or salaried from $20 per hour, to around $37,000 per year.

Rector credits the company’s vertical integration for its agility. The variety of disciplines needed to produce limited, personalized marketing materials means ScreenBroidery will be hiring for a variety of new jobs in product development, graphic design, order processing and more.

The move to owning a facility will allow Rector to bring ScreenBroidery’s name to the forefront.

Instead of buying Gildan-brand shirts wholesale, Rector is planning to produce his own line of shirts. ScreenBroidery will benefit by having its name on the tag.

Rector said owning his own building also gives him 15,000 square feet of roof, which will allow him to run his operations off 100% solar energy. Rector is also looking into a method of grinding up t-shirts and other textiles that may have been made with a defect or ordered in error to be re-used as recycled marketing collateral.

“There’s a lot of waste in the production side of stuff and we try do to our part to be as responsible as we can,” Rector said.

ScreenBroidery also has a production facility at 1708 University Ave. on Ball State University’s campus in Muncie.